The Cardboard Box

            Through her tears, she looked again at the house, and made her way to the front yard where she could see more clearly the beautiful body of water.  The view was magnificent.  The clouds were hiding the sun just enough so that the various shades of yellow, pink and purple seemed to burst from them lighting up the sky and reflecting on the water.  She walked closer to the edge where there was an old broken, white fence, and she could see that there were large rocks below and a small pier.  As she approached an opening in the fence which led to a path she saw a small beach about 20 feet below.  The pathway to the beach was overgrown with large shrubs, wild flowers, and tall weeds, but she could see a few wooden steps that led the way down.

As appealing as it was, she decided it was not the time to go down to the beach and turned and walked back to the front of the house.  She noticed that the house looked in good condition.  The paint wasn’t chipped, and the porch with its pretty gingerbread trim seemed very sturdy when she took the three steps up to the door.  The front door had a diamond-shaped, decorative pane of glass in the center and looked fairly new and inviting. 

She was about to open the door when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man walking towards the porch and turned to face him.  He was rather short with a stocky build, dark complexion, graying hair and a beard.   

“Hello,” he said.  “Are you Miss Winchester?” 

“Yes, and who are you?”  She asked.

“I’m the caretaker, have been for years.  Just call me Carlos.  I live in the little brown rambler, over that hill to your left, and saw your car when you drove by. The lawyer called me after Mr. Winchester passed away and said you would be coming, but he didn’t know exactly when.  Your uncle had me look after the place for him.  He lived here many years ago.  I helped him remodel and put in an extra bathroom upstairs.  He also had me remodel the kitchen back in the 70’s, and I had a crew working so he could have central air-conditioning.  When he left, he gave me a key because he occasionally wanted some things done to the inside.  Through the years he and I became good friends – I trusted him and he trusted me.  Years ago, I told him about the old pier rotting out and that I had put in a new one.  He was okay with that and a few other changes I made.  I always tried to keep the place clean for him in case he came back.  Charlie was a very generous man and I always did right by him.”  He paused for a moment, “Say, you aren’t planning on staying are you?”

“Well, I’m not sure.  I want to get to know the place a bit.  I’ll probably stay for awhile and just see what happens.  I might keep it as a summer place.  Is there some reason I shouldn’t -- something wrong with the place?” 

“No,” he quickly offered. “I just don’t think this is much of a place for a city girl like you who’s been living in New York, that’s all I meant.  There’s not much happenin’ here.  It‘s a pretty dull life……..and……..Mr. Charlie was going to sell the place.”